So to put it simply, some of the Vodyani mechanics seem counter-productive.

I had a 4-ship fleet collecting delicious essence from a nearby system with a Minor Faction (my only source of Essence at this point), a new Quest/Decision pops up, I could either Brainwash a Minor Faction or Explore 5 Ruins.

I picked Brainwash, because there weren't that many ruins around in the systems I'd explored, and I had a big chunk of Influence already + the Minor Faction trait (that would be assimilated) was quite good.
Now here comes the counter-productive part, after a few turns they were brainwashed, but suddenly I could not collect essence from them with my fleet, why you ask? 

Well brainwashing them turns them into "Allies".

One would think that if you brainwashed an entire race/faction, that you would possibly get more essence out of it, as you could "demand" it as some form of tribute or they would ignore your ships in orbit collecting said essence.
I'm hoping that this is somehow a bug, and not actually how it's intended to work.

I quickly lost that game because I could not expand, and the Cravers came and ate me and my fleets for lunch later (irony).

Thoughts?

Farris wrote:

One would think that if you brainwashed an entire race/faction, that you would possibly get more essence out of it, as you could "demand" it as some form of tribute or they would ignore your ships in orbit collecting said essence.
I'm hoping that this is somehow a bug, and not actually how it's intended to work

It's not intended indeed. You should be able to get essence from a brainwashed minor faction. I'll look at it today. 

Cheers,

Meedoc wrote:

Farris wrote:

One would think that if you brainwashed an entire race/faction, that you would possibly get more essence out of it, as you could "demand" it as some form of tribute or they would ignore your ships in orbit collecting said essence.
I'm hoping that this is somehow a bug, and not actually how it's intended to work

It's not intended indeed. You should be able to get essence from a brainwashed minor faction. I'll look at it today. 

Cheers,

\o/

Glad to hear it was a bug, thanks!

Meedoc wrote:

Farris wrote:

One would think that if you brainwashed an entire race/faction, that you would possibly get more essence out of it, as you could "demand" it as some form of tribute or they would ignore your ships in orbit collecting said essence.
I'm hoping that this is somehow a bug, and not actually how it's intended to work

It's not intended indeed. You should be able to get essence from a brainwashed minor faction. I'll look at it today. 

Cheers,

Hmm I guess I'll Necro this, since (~2 months and a major patch later) you still can't collect Essence from a Brainwashed Minor Faction, because they are classed as "Allies".

On the complete opposite to the Essence issue, is the fact that your Trading routes will not be able to go through a Brainwashed Minor Factions territory, because on the Economy Scan it states that it's "enemy territory".  

Frogsquadron wrote:

I've pinged the design team on this issue, if it is indeed not working as intended, they'll move it to the Bugs section.

EDIT: Okay Meedoc confirmed that this will be fixed in the next update, by "I'll look into it today" he meant "I'll look into fixing it today"!

Okay, thanks!

Better (2 months) late than never.

As a fellow Vodyani player, I hope that you guys like that this idea was recently Greenlit.

https://www.games2gether.com/endless-space-2/ideas/165-fix-the-vodyani#post-last